Kaleb
Masculine · Hebrew roots · “Either "dog" or "whole-hearted”
Kaleb is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 86,649 boys against 202 girls since 1880.
Kaleb is the K-spelling of Caleb, a name carried out of the Hebrew Bible into English by Protestant families who took their children's names straight from scripture. The sound has stayed intact through every step of that journey: two clear syllables, a long open first vowel, a soft landing on the b. The swapped initial letter is a much more recent American habit, and it has held on well enough to give Kaleb a record of its own.
How old is the name Kaleb?
Kaleb first appears in US birth records in 1970 — 55 years ago. The typical Kaleb alive today was born around 2007, making them about 18 years old. About 85,500 people named Kaleb are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Kaleb most popular?
Kaleb peaked in 2009, reaching #108 nationally. Today it ranks #295, 187 places below that high. See the whole 2009 chart.
Kaleb appears on this list:
Where it comes from
From Kalev (Hebrew) to Kaleb
The story of Kaleb
The name comes from Hebrew, and its first bearer is Caleb son of Jephunneh in the Book of Numbers, one of the twelve men sent to scout Canaan and one of only two who came back urging the people to go in. English-speaking Protestants of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries mined the Hebrew scriptures for names, and Caleb traveled with them to colonial New England, where it stayed in steady if quiet use for generations. Kaleb is the American respelling, part of a broad late-twentieth-century move to swap C for K in familiar names — Kayla, Kaden, Kaleb. It arrived on the US charts a good deal later than its parent spelling and rose fast once it did.
Meaningscholars disagree
Either "dog" or "whole-hearted"
Two serious readings compete. The Hebrew word kelev means "dog" — in the ancient Near East a sign of loyalty and service rather than an insult. The other reading splits the name into kol lev, "all heart", which is how many rabbinic commentators have taken it. Neither has pushed the other out.
How the name formed
- KalevHebrew
- ChalebGreek Septuagint
- CalebLatin and English
- Kaleb
Related forms: Kalev · Caleb · Calebe · Caleb · Caleb
Pronouncing Kaleb
KAY-leb
Stress on the first syllable. The pronunciation is identical to Caleb, so the only thing anyone has to be told is the spelling.
Nicknames for Kaleb
High
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1970
- Most boys named
- 20073,819 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #108reached in 2009
- Change vs 2024
- −6.7%1,143 in 2025, from 1,225
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Kaleb in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Kalev in Hebrew — transliteration
- Caleb in English — spelling variant
- Calebe in Portuguese — same name
- Caleb in Spanish — same name
- Caleb in French — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Florida.
Kalebs among us
people named Kaleb are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 1,494 born in 2025 was named Kaleb
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Kaleb
- #295
- Kaleb on the 2025 chart
- #43
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Kaleb went to 1,143 boys in 2025, but Caleb is the same name said out loud. Together the 3 spellings went to 6,386, which makes it the 43rd most-given boys’ name of the year — 252 places above the chart.
- Caleb5,217
- Kaleb1,143
and 1 rarer spelling.
About 1 boy in 267 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 1,494 for Kaleb itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Johnathan test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Kaleb's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Johnathan climbed just as high around 1990, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Johnathan's path sketches the road Kaleb is walking now.
Kaleb sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Kaleb is headed
Kaleb should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Kaleb beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Kaleb in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Everyone already knows how to say it — the sound is standard English and needs no explanation, only the letter K.
- A documented line running from the Hebrew Bible through English Puritan use to the present, unbroken for centuries in one spelling or another.
- Travels well: Caleb and Calebe are ordinary names across Spanish, French and Portuguese-speaking countries.
- Short forms already exist in real use — Kale and Kal — rather than needing to be invented.
- Common enough that no one blinks, spread out enough that a child is unlikely to share it with a classmate.
- Caleb with a C is the older and far more widespread spelling, so expect a lifetime of "Kaleb with a K" — on forms, on coffee cups, in email addresses. It is a small tax, but a daily one.
- The K-spelling is a distinctly modern American form and is fairly easy to date to a particular stretch of naming fashion. That is neither good nor bad, but it does place the name in time in a way that Caleb does not.
- The short form Kale now reads as the vegetable to most American ears. Some families lean into it; others simply use Kal.
- The "dog" reading of the Hebrew occasionally comes up and can catch parents off guard. In its original context it pointed to loyalty, and the competing "all heart" reading has been argued for just as long.
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Kaleb
Masculine · Hebrew roots · #295 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Kalebs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 85,500 people named Kaleb are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Kaleb?
- Kaleb is one of 2 recorded spellings. Caleb is the more common one — 5,217 births in 2025 against 1,143 for Kaleb.
- How popular is the name Kaleb in 2025?
- Kaleb ranks #295 among US boy names in 2025, with 1,143 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Kaleb?
- About 1 in every 1,494 US boys born in 2025 was named Kaleb — 1,143 in all.
- Will my child share the name Kaleb with classmates?
- Kaleb will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Kaleb
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Kohen#295 · Kenneth#294 · Holden#297 · Reid#293 · Jeremy#292 · Sonny#298 · Avery#291 · Preston#299
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Kaleb? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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